Bielefeld, Sparrenburg, The low sun at this time of of January goes down at the right angle. for me it was an opportunity for the first attempts of what film and lens could do with the Leica R3 in terms of contrast and colour.

At the suggestion of dear forum member David (wda) I am showing this picture from the Spreewald, a region in southern Brandenburg / Germany known for its many small canals, shippable by punts, here again. We went there on a short vacation with some friends last weekend and where lucky, as we had a pretty sunny weather for November. The picture was done with the Leica X-Vario and postprocessed in Lightroom. I must admit that I didn't put my Vario to use that much in the last months, which is a shame, as it is such a capable little machine. Although it will probably forever stay the "little ugly sister" in the Leica universe, I am more than glad about my decision on bying this camera. What do you think?

When i need some silence and i do have time i sometimes go to the Bibliotheca augusta also known as the Herzog August Bibliothek...
The library was founded by in 1572 and in the 17th century it was the largest library north of the alps (Germany, Wolfenbüttel).
The library is one of the oldest in the world to have never suffered loss to its collection, a very special place.
Notable librarians have included Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing....
SL with 28mm Lux 5 sec ISO 100 f16

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg harbour
The biggest Jazz Festival in germany, and the best:
Concert at midnight at the "Elphi" called Elbphilharmonie
Cristoph Spangenberg plays NIRVANA as a solo version on piano...
outside:

Last weekend I was in Hamburg to join the Craig Semetko workshop on street photography organised by LFI. Now, I will confess that I was a little dubious as to whether I would gain much from this and it worked out fairly expensive taking into account the fact that I had to book 4 nights accommodation and flights from the U.K. - and face the hard fact that the value of the UK pound had plummeted by over 25% in Europe since it was decided (not by my vote) that we should pull out of the E.U. I have been shooting 'street photography' for around 50 years, and have exhibited it pretty much world-wide so would I really gain anything? In the end I decided that, at the very least, I would get to meet Craig who has been a friend on Facebook for a long time and whose work I admire. As it was I found I learnt more than I could have imagined, met some great new guys, together with the picture editor of Die Zeit Sunday magazine (you don't meet people at that level every day of the week!) Basically I had a ball despite the cold Hamburg weather.
I will post a few of my favourites in the following posts. All were shot on a Leica M9 with a 35mm Summarit-M f2.5 lens at 800iso to allow me the depth of field and shutter speed combination I wanted. I hope you enjoy them.
Oh, and if you get chance and street photography is your thing (or even if it is not) go and meet Craig. He is a great entertainer and a consummate professional when it comes to street photography. As for LFI, they are great guys and special thanks must go to Simon Schwarzer.
Gerry
"Christ!"

The place is near the river Weser next to the city of Höxter. Monastery Corvey and palace
Since last year the list of our World Culture Heritage has one item more. This unique unit of palace and monastery at the river Weser represents the power of a rich culture.
There is a palace once being the centre of a ruling family that was and still is directly bound and obliged to welfare of the region. There is the monastery on the other hand, a place from where christiansation started and found its strong counterpart in well organized people from the region. The church is an impressive building from the 9th century . The facade is massive simple gothic style and bears like a shell the relicts of the original parts from the 9th century. Tee interior itself is baroque and so this whole mixture makes the strong impact and bears a long history.
Leica Q
Pilgrimage to the new place on the list of the World culture Heritage

Here is an interesting article on Leica's new (in 2014) headquarters in Wetzlar. Since it is an article from 2014, I'm not sure if this has been previously posted or not; if so, apologies for the duplication.
http://untappedcities.com/2014/06/04/behind-the-scenes-inside-the-new-leica-camera-factory-and-headquarters/

When the weather had been too nasty during the week at least that saturday evening showed up with a lush blue hour. This pub usually has its late evening guests enjoying their draught after a busy week.
Leica Q: 2.8 - 1/125 - ISO 5000

It started snowing at 4 p.m.
First, if you see any snowfall here in our city and if you are a photographer, grab your stuff immediately because you know it will al be gone again soon. It was a sunday and so I could grab my Leica Q. What elso do you need than a wideangle lens and a camera being capable of higher ISO rates.

My walk started just before the dusk.
This area is quite popular and normally the crowd is walking their dogs there. but at this time of a late sunday afternoon it was deserted and a pleasure to have a tranquil walk.

My walk during our city at the blue hour almost ended here and I was thinking about to have a nice draught. But then I decided to have a last shot of the day with this guest sitting outside a pub in February!
Leica Q - 2.8 - 1/125 sec - ISO 8000

Bielefeld has a few nice buildings left, even if 70 percent of the city was destroyed during WWII. There are tranquilles bylanes with restaurants, pubs and when I strolled there, not a single soul could be seen.
Leica Q 2.8/ 1/60 sec/ ISO 1600